VANCOUVER — He once considered attending the Ivy League’s Cornell University to study and play basketball.
He’s a budding fashion consultant who dresses like he just walked off the pages of Gentleman’s Quarterly magazine. His business card describes him as a stylist.

And he’s a sociology major who moonlights as a waiter at a French bistro on West 4th.

Paris-born to parents of Cameroonian descent, he has played the role of student-athlete vagabond, leaving his native France as a teen in 2007 and suiting up for four different U.S. schools in four successive seasons.

“For sure,” Brylle Kamen says in a somewhat incredulous tone, “I would never have imagined that at age 24, I’d be playing basketball in Canada.”

Yet that’s where Kamen, the leading rebounder in the Canada West conference, finds himself Friday (8 p.m.) as the starting at power forward for the CIS-No. 2-ranked UBC Thunderbirds (10-2), who return to the cozy confines of War Memorial Gym to face the Brandon Bobcats (3-9). UBC hosts Regina on Saturday (7 p.m.). The No. 5-ranked UBC women play the same two schools (6 p.m. tonight, 5 p.m. Saturday). The Regina women come in ranked No. 2.

“He is one of the most unique characters you will meet in your life,” UBC head coach Kevin Hanson chuckles of the sculpted 6-foot-7 Kamen, who seems to effortlessly blend a high IQ with his inner GQ.

In back-to-back games separated by the CIS winter break, Kamen put up dual 21-rebound performances, each just a pair of caroms shy of equaling the UBC single-game record of 23 set a quarter of a century ago by Aaron Point. In one of those games, a 96-84 win over Lethbridge, Kamen scored 26 points.

Those are the kinds of numbers that have made everyone stand up and take notice, kind of like what happens every time Kamen arrives at War to prepare for games and practices.

“He came in here last year wearing some of the most interesting outfits I have ever seen a player wear,” continues Hanson of Kamen, who spent the 2011-12 season as a redshirt following his transfer from NCAA Div. 1 San Jose State. “Designer rubber boots. Silk scarves. Some of our alums asked me what was going on with this guy, and I said ‘Hey, wait until you see him in a basketball uniform and you’ll understand what is going on.'”

Now in his third season of eligibility with two more remaining, Kamen — averaging 12.6 points and 11.4 rebounds per game — admits he has discovered the place he can call home after so many mis-timed landings south of the border.

Electing not to turn pro coming out of high school in Paris, Kamen attended the blue-chip Stoneridge Preparatory School in Los Angeles in 2007-08. There he developed a friendship with assistant coach Rob Brooks, and followed him to NCAA Div. 1 Jacksonville State in the Appalachian foothills of Alabama in 2008-09.

NCAA officials were concerned that Kamen had scrimmaged with some pros in France before coming to the U.S., and made him sit out that entire campaign before finally clearing him. He followed Brooks to Western Nebraska Community College in 2009-10, where he used his first year of eligibility. And from there, went to San Jose State in 2010-11, where he played but says he could just never click with the coaching staff.

From March to May of 2011, schools were calling him almost every day and one of those calls changed his life.

“I was lying in bed one morning and the phone rang,” laughed Kamen. “It said it was a British Columbia number. I had no idea what state it was.”

UBC assistant Jamie Oei was on the other end, and after convincing Kamen to take a visit north, it wasn’t too long before Kamen had packed his bags for Vancouver.

“I feel like it’s more about life here,” he says when asked about the biggest differences between the two countries for a student-athlete. “There, everything is given to the athletes. Your house. Your food. You start to feel like you are superior being on a team. You’re kind of like a star but you don’t really deserve it.

“Coming to Canada is more of a humbling experience and I have had to work part time to pay my bills and buy food,” continues Kamen, who waits on tables and even helps in the kitchen just off campus at Cafe Regalade.

And Kamen has also been eager to expand his fashion consulting business, which at present includes just a few clients.

“I work to help them find clothes,” says Kamen. “It’s very fun, and the more people that know about me, the more they ask for advice.”

That influence has even spread to Kamen’s UBC teammates.

“Two weeks ago Doug was wearing a pair of jeans, they were skinnier than he would usually wear,” Kamen laughed of veteran ‘Birds guard and team scoring leader Doug Plumb. “He said to me ‘It looks good. I didn’t think I could pull this off.’ I told him that he was picking up his fashion sense.'”

Hanson admits that often times, players who transfer as many times as Kamen arrive with a lot of issues. Yet other than his suitcases full of clothes, Hanson has seen no baggage.

“We got him by working hard and having our feelers out there,” the coach explains. “But it was also kind of by fluke. It was through a connection of a connection of a connection. He is just the kindest human being and a true team guy. Sometimes you have to be lucky and for us, it just panned out.”

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Head of the Class 2014

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